Not So Dirty Un-Secret...

I have a subscription to booksfree.com and I love it. It's kind of like Netflix for books. I have the minimum subscription (two at a time), but I keep threatening to upgrade (the only person I tell is myself, so it's not really a threat, except to my credit card!). Anyway. I got my latest shipment of books yesterday (as I was driving up to my mailbox, I was thinking that my next shipment should be arriving any day now. When I opened my mailbox, there was the charming gray plastic envelope. So, Woo!) and I'm very happy. I received Charmed, an anthology of fantasy romances. The only two authors I remember are Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz, a perennial favorite)and Lori Foster. I won't write anymore about that book until I have it in front of me to make sure of my details. So far, I've only looked at the Jayne Castle story. Sadly, for me, I've read it before. Not sad in the sense that I didn't like the story, but sad in the sense that I hadn't realized that I had already read that story when I ordered the book. Oh well, hopefully the other stories will prove charming.

The other book is The Smoke Thief by Shane Abe. I've read mostly good things about this one, and it has dragons (!) so I'm looking forward to reading it. I'll probably give my Saturday over to it (Screw you bread! I'm reading a book! Sorry garden! I have my story!) especially if the fiance is out of town. Well, I could make bread and read a book at the same time, since there is a lot of down time in bread making. Also in doing laundry. So, really, there is hope for household chores being accomplished even in the face of a Book. My tendency to disappear into books is really the only thing that worries my mother about me having children... D'Oh! I just remembered, I have load-in for Shakespeare Festival on Saturday. I will be putting up walls!

Moving on.

I made beef stew in my slow cooker on Monday. It turned out fabulously, if I do say so myself (and I probably shouldn't). I love the slow cooker, I don't use it as often as I could. However, since it is just the two of us right now, that's probably not the tragedy it might be if I were cooking for a large family. There were biscuits to accompany. I used my new favorite biscuit recipe. Honey-Wheat Biscuits from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. My boy is a biscuit fiend, and he would eat these with every meal (of course, I don't know that he has met a biscuit he doesn't like, so weight the recommendation as you wish).

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

beef (I used 2.25 lbs London Broil, but any stew meat will work as well)
onion (1 large or 1 1/2 small)
garlic (3-6 cloves)
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
thyme (one stem of fresh)
oregano (one stem of fresh)
rosemary (2 inch stem of fresh)
2 bay leaves
carrots (2 or 3 big ones, or a handful of babies)
3 potatoes
wine
1/2 - 1 cup chicken broth
water


Peel and slice the onion. Peel and coarsely chop the garlic. Chunk the carrots (if using big ones) and potatoes. Pile ingredients into slow cooker. Wash and dry the meat, trim any fat around the edges, chunk. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brown in batches in a hot skillet with a little olive oil (add more oil as necessary, but don't overdo, I probably used a total of 2 TBSP over the course of 5 or six batches of meat). As the meat browns, toss it into the slow cooker. When all the meat is browned, deglaze the pan with the wine of your choice (I used sherry because I didn't have anything else in the house at the time). Lay the herbs on top. Pour the deglazing liquid, chicken broth and water over all, adding enough liquid to come about half way up the side of the pot. Cover and cook on high for about 5 hours or on low for 8. Or on high for 3 and low for 3.

Serve with a salad and bread of your choice.

This recipe (as written) should serve about 5-6 people. It can always be made to serve more or fewer, depending on how much meat and potatoes you use. :-) Flexible recipes are the best.

Right then. Off to feed horses.